Eigo de Essay
Fairlady Z It was a sunny day in the fall of 1980. I was sitting in the passenger seat of a dark red Nissan Fairlady Z. The driver was a friend of my boyfriend's at that time, and we were on a one-lane winding road that led to someone’s home up on the hill. Nobu, the driver, was driving like crazy on the narrow uphill road, which was barely paved. We can be all stupid when young, and Nobu was an extreme case. He drove up the road at high speed without making sure if there was an oncoming car or not. Well, there was no other car, but he couldn't make the curve because of the speed. The car skidded and dropped from the lane. By the way, in Japan, we drive on the left side of the roads, and the steering wheels of cars are on the right seat. I was sitting on the left, and the car dropped from its left side. Many people say that they don't really remember what actually happened at the time of an accident. I can't recall the details of the moment, either. After the car dropped, the first thing I saw was the blue sky from the window of the driver's side. The car was supported on its left side by some trees on the steep slope off the road. The trees' trunks didn't look very strong, and the car was swaying. Nobu unbuckled his seat belt and fell all over me. The car bounced, and I heard some branches break. We had to get out before the trees gave way to the weight of the car. The windows were intact, so we tried to open the right door. What was difficult was that it was a sports car with only one long door on each side, and we had to open it vertically. The door was heavy, and the car swayed as we pushed. If mobile phones had been in our hands back then, we would have called for help. Well, we could have yelled for help, but we were deep in the mountain. You know, we had been trying to open the car door, but then realized we could easily open the window of the door using the switch. The engine was still running. The window was big enough for us to crawl out. After getting out, we climbed back to the road. Nobu's beautiful car was totally wrecked, but both of us were alright, just got some scratches.
|